ABSTRACT
To an experienced educator, teaching is much like jazz performance: a wellpracticed fusion of careful, creative planning and spontaneous improvisation. Like jazz music, much of good teaching is context-dependent, serendipitous improvisation, yet it still follows predetermined, somewhat predictable structures sequenced in virtually infinite permutations.1 Functional and effective learning activity designs and implementation strategies for teachers’ use must build upon such educational improvisation, so that students’ needs, preferences, and reactions can be accommodated. Yet they must also be carefully planned, so that curriculum standards are addressed in appropriate ways within the time constraints of the school day and year. For even the experienced teacher, assisting students’ learning “is a matter of thoughtful creation, not mere unaided instinct,” as Mr. Ellington reminds us.
